Sunder Ramaswamy Outlines Process for Administrative Appointments

In a message to faculty and staff, President-designate Sunder Ramaswamy thanked the community for its participation in discussions of the administrative reorganization announced last week, and described the process he will follow for making administrative appointments. In case you missed the message:

Dear Colleagues:

I would like to thank you for your time during last week’s Town Hall meeting. Clara and I appreciated the opportunity of being able to present the roll out of the administrative reorganization and take questions.  I would also like to thank members of the community who sent follow up questions and comments. I very much look forward to being a part of this community and to work with all of you to build on the positive momentum gathered in so many areas of the Institute.

With regard to the process of next steps, let me spell it out in a bit more detail.  A finalized version of the organization will be presented to the MIIS Board of Trustees during their October meeting.  Once that is approved, I will begin in earnest the search for a number of the key administrative (both academic and non-academic) positions. As I mentioned at the Town Hall, I will look at current administrators, some external and other internal nominees.  In a process that is more aligned with the Middlebury practice, I plan to vet my decisions with the faculty representative group, the Senate.  As we all know, the current Faculty Handbook in many ways does not reflect the unfolding reality of MIIS becoming a part of the Middlebury, starting at the level of the Board of Trustees, and including the appointment of the President and other administrators. We will have time and opportunity to work through governance issues in a timely and methodical manner to meet the integration timeline of June 30, 2010 that we have set forth to NEASC and WASC.

I will be back on campus third week of October but in the meantime, please do not hesitate to e-mail me any questions you might have.

Sincerely,
Sunder Ramaswamy